‘Extract’ tastes so good, you’ll feel like you’re back at work

Now, don’t stop reading, don’t! I didn’t mean that you’ll feel like you’re back at your cruddy job. Well, sort of. See, Mike Judge, to me, is the Master of the Workplace. If you remember his film debut, “Office Space,” he taught us that we all have a Bill Lumberg in our lives. And a Milton. Judge returns to the workplace in his newest film, “Extract.”

Joel (Jason Bateman) is the picture of success. His food flavoring extract business is booming and General Mills has decided to buy him out. He has a beautiful wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig) and a great home. Although, things at home aren’t what they seem. Suzie has lost all interest in Joel.

Things aren’t much better at work. Disgruntled line worker Mary (Beth Grant) has a problem with some immigrant workers coming in. She’s bitter enough that when she spots someone in the plant not doing their job, she quickly decides she’s not going to do her job either. What results is an accident that sends another floor worker, Step (Clifton Collins Jr.) to the hospital and might end up in a lawsuit.

And unbeknownst to Joel, a wild-eyed con-artist Cindy (Mila Kunis) has her sights on Step and his possible lawsuit, as well as on Joel. Joel turns to his drug hazed best-friend, Dean (Ben Affleck) for advice and soon hatches a plot to test his wife’s love all the while trying to defuse Step’s lawsuit and keep his company afloat long enough to sell.

Trust me when I say that it’s really good. You start to see, as you did with “Office Space,” the factory worker stereotypes and I’m sure you’ll have your own equivalents. Now, a movie like this doesn’t need BD treatment. It doesn’t jump off the screen or make waves of any kind. So I’ll start my recommendation early and say, if you can find this on standard def, grab it.

And when I say that its gonna make you feel like you’re back at work, I just mean that if you’ve ever worked in a factory-like setting before, or have ever held a job for more than 6 months, you will know many of the characters in the movie.

Extras

A few of the bonus features, however, are BD exclusive, so if you grab the SD version, you’ll miss out on:

• Deleted scene

• Extended scenes

You will, however, be treated to a really well, put together making of feature:

• Mike Judge’s Secret Recipe – The Ingredients for a classic Mike Judge film: With intro menus meant to evoke a cookbook, the making of feature is fun and gets a bit of talk time from some of the main actors.

But that’s far from a good reason to grab the BD issue of this disc. I love Mike Judge and his work, but none of his films are movies that I’d hit with a firm stamp of “needed on Blu-ray”. It’s a great film with some snappy dialogue and some moments that leave you uncomfortable because you know it’s really happened somewhere. But it does nothing for the average consumer or the hardened fan on BD.